Rural Business Awards – open for nominations

Posted: 24^th April 2017

The aim of the Rural Business Awards is to give recognition to businesses operating right across the Rural sector. The CLA define rural businesses as fitting into three broad categories – Land Based businesses, Land Related Businesses and Other Businesses located in rural areas. Our category selection this year aims to draw together businesses from across these three broad areas to acknowledge the breadth and depth of opportunity presented by the Great British countryside, as well as to celebrate the achievements of our rural businesses, from engineering through to artisan food producers and professional services organisations.

Importantly the awards are organised by rural business for rural business and judged by people who understand the rural sector. Businesses operating in the Rural sector employ in excess of 3.4million people within over 600,000 businesses, and the sector is growing rapidly.

In partnership with the CLA and Amazon, and with support from our winners, entrants and sponsors we are positioned once again to generate considerable excitement, interest and pride in the achievements’ of our Rural Business sector.

The thirteen award categories will be decided by an independent panel of judges drawn from the rural business sector, official agencies and rural charitable organisations.

The objectives of the Awards are:

• To acknowledge and celebrate the vital contributions made by companies to the development and success of the Rural sector and rural way of life;
• To encourage entrepreneurial spirit in the Rural sector, and to give recognition to excellence in business set-up, operation and management

The 2016 Rural Business Awards open for entries on 1st March 2017, with the ceremony to be held on October 5th 2017 at Denbies Wine Estate, Surrey. Denbies provides a wonderful backdrop for our award ceremony where we will recognise and celebrate all of the entrants and sponsors and announce our 2017 winners.

We want you to tell us why you’re the best and why you, your business, project, product or service deserves to be recognised nationally as the best in its class. Try to demonstrate your uniqueness, your successes and your vision. We want to understand your values and how they are entrenched in the rural sector. How you plan, how you hope to grow and how you impact the rural economy and way of life.

This ethos runs through all of the categories for which we are selecting winners. The judging panel will refer to these points to ensure that entries are relevant and demonstrate commitment to the rural business sector.

In addition to this we will consider the following in all applications.

BUSINESS Focus, demonstrate:

• Contribution to the rural and wider business economy
• Effective Financial Management
• Job creation
• Service and Infrastructure development

And / or

PEOPLE Focus, demonstrate:

• Positive impact on communities or people

How your product, service, project or offering makes life easier or better for people living or working in rural locations.